Defend Blasphemy! (There is no "god" anyway)

Beheading in the presence of Mohammed whose face has been blanked.

Scrolling through Facebook a couple of days ago I came across an article in which Theresa May had been said to have "talked to God" according to headline. There were only two comments but the thought of a Christian Prime Minister, even in this modern age is of no major concern so long as she (or he) does not seek to impose the rule of religion on others. The Prime Ministers religious beliefs are not secret nor of major concern even to me as an ardent atheist and secularist.

Those of us who do not believe in the various religions mankind has invented for itself do not seek to stop others believing what they will no matter how misguided. Our campaigning role is simply to ensure the separation of religion and the state.

Many people I know and work with are committed Christians and they are well aware of my disdain for imaginary deities and yet we get along fine. The nearest I come to conflict with anyone of the Christian denomination is on a Sunday morning when occasionally evangelicals bang on my door far too early for my liking and get told to go away.

Christianity has for the most managed to move on from it's brutal medieval period of the Inquisition to a more enlightened role in the world. There remain problems around gay rights in African and Russia as backwardness seems to be on the rise again particularly with the Orthodox Church finding new life alongside nationalism.

For the most part the worst I can expect from overzealous Christians is a headache.

Not so with the religion of Islam.

All over the Middle east and parts of Asia there has been a rise in dangerous fundamentalism, much of it hidden from sight over the years as the Clerics and Mullahs find their power under threat from the growing influence of modern culture.

Their backlash has been horrific.

In Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran  women's rights have been eroded and suppressed, most obviously with the imposition of the hijab. The Wests liberals, left and feminists mostly capitulated to this Islamist development

There was even a time when one left-wing current, The Fourth International had its organisation split over the issue. One of it's sections actually supporting the veil.

Despite the protestations of these anti-imperialists women in Islamic countries do not have a choice. They are not free. Sharia law suppresses Women. Female genital mutilation continues unabated. Yet the feminist movement continues to work with Islamists like Linda sarsour and fete Muslim communities on their own terms rather than challenge conservative and backward thinking seeking their support for some illusory "anti-imperialist" struggle.

And yet while women suffer and gays are executed without a murmur in Socialist Worker or most of the left wing press it has hardly surprising to see that as Pakistan calls on Facebook to help it track down "blasphemers", even the idiots of the BBC allow a presenter on their Asia to ask the ridiculous question of what should be the punishment for blasphemy.

Oh the BBC have apologised and backtracked, but the damage is done, even some of the liberal media have capitulated to the Islamic agenda.

While this all goes on everyone who supports freedom of speech, in fact any kind of freedom at all should remember that 51 Islamic nations have been and are pushing for blasphemy to be made a crime worldwide through the United Nations.

As a democracy we must defend not just our rights but those of others who seek to gain the same rights. It is the clerics and Islamic politicians who are a danger to humanity not the "blasphemers".  

Look at the suffering of other religious minorites in most Muslim countries and you will see that it is not just women and gays who have to fear the rise of Islam and it's colonisation and imposition on others. 

Freedom is under threat. If anyone wants to criticise religion that is their right. There is no God only those whose power and influence comes from the enforced superstitious brainwashing process of praying five times a day and fasting for pretend "spiritual" experiences.

Those who threaten death are charlatans who will lose their influence. Throwing off Islam will be like throwing off chains.

Islamism is the new fascism for the twenty-first century.